There are no perfect speakers and no perfect speeches, and the sooner you acknowledge that and cut yourself some slack, the sooner you can set about improving your presentation skills. The problem that many of us have when we think through a presentation we've just given is a tendancy to filter out everything that really worked, and focus in on every little thing that didn't quite come together. But it's not only unrealistic to expect to give the perfect presenation, it's actually harmful to the process of improving.
Photo credit: Alex Hinds
When speaking expert TJ Walker is training people who want to improve their presentation skills, he often video tapes their speaking, and plays back the results later on. As anyone that has had to endure this experience for themselves will tell you, the reaction that most people have is to pick out the worst moments and tiniest errors, even if they are far outnumbered by examples of great speaking skills. Here is the will to perfection incarnate, and
its net effect is to drag your confidence down next time you have to make a presentation.
That isn't TJ Walker's goal of course, and his challenge, as explained in the following short video, is to have his trainees focus on a balance of pros and cons, rather than simply zeroing in on their negative points. Here are the details:
TJ says:
''You have to go about it with a discipline, with a process, and it can't be 'well if it's not perfect I'm going to hate myself and beat myself up'. That's not the way to get better at anything. So I urge you, videotape yourself and then write down what you like and what you don't like. But here's the key: write down one think you like for everything that you don't like.''
While it might take considerably longer to come up with the good points, it will be well worth your while, rather than letting yourself get trapped in a cycle of negativity.
Perfection just wasn't meant to be, but the best way of getting somewhere close to it is to take a balanced view of your presentation delivery, and let the good points balance out the bad. In doing so, you give yourself a chance to improve on them, without letting them consume you.
